Talk:Will Still

Nationality

I've always considered him Belgian, but this calls him English... GiantSnowman 18:45, 3 March 2023 (UTC)

• I'd leave it as Belgian, most refs list him as such: here, here, here, and here. He's obviously a dual nat, and it's not surprising that an English source would "claim" him.--Ortizesp (talk) 05:37, 4 March 2023 (UTC)

  It’s not like it’s an outlandish claim though. He was born in Belgium to an expatriate family and then returned to the UK for higher education. – PeeJay 22:54, 7 March 2023 (UTC)

  Sure, his entire playing career and most of his managerial career has been in Belgium. Hasn't stepped foot in England in a footballing sense to date. Ortizesp (talk) 22:02, 12 March 2023 (UTC)

  He describes himself as English. That seems definitive to me.

  https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/jan/26/will-still-managing-ligue-1-club-30-couldnt-be-happier-neymar-mbappe 131.106.108.111 (talk) 15:07, 6 April 2023 (UTC)

  Will Will Still still be eligible for Belgian citizenship if Still is unwilling to fulfill simple Belgian language requirements for citizenship, even if Still were to willfully renounce any claim of still being an English citizen? 2601:6C5:300:6300:5D62:14E9:C5E3:4CE6 (talk) 04:39, 23 April 2025 (UTC)

  @GiantSnowman and @Ortizesp, not sure if you are aware, the 2025–26 EFL Championship page is the target of repetitive changes of the flag from English to Belgian and vice versa post 5 June 2025, e.g. and . I've noticed today the flag for this person has changed once again. Iggy (Swan) (Contribs) 17:08, 20 June 2025 (UTC)

  It seems media is avoiding the question e.g. official Southampton release does not say he is "Belgian" or "English", same with Sky Sports... maybe have a RFC? GiantSnowman 08:32, 21 June 2025 (UTC)

The statement “I’m English – both of my parents are English – but I’ve spent most of my life in Belgium.” Is fairly clear. Being born in Belgium does not, of itself, make him Belgian. Bradley Wiggins was also born in Belgium, but has never been considered anything other than British. Daemonickangaroo2018 (talk) 13:32, 21 June 2025 (UTC)

Long standing policy of Wikipedia football project (a concept invented entirely in that project and yet described as FIFA eligibility rules on countless templates), he is Belgian. Of course it is ridiculous to claim that every individual can be meaningfully ascribed exactly one flag to identify their identity, but for as long as we insist on in so many tables and templates, we should at least be consistent. No national representation, therefore place of birth. Of course, in the prose of an article there is no need for artificial simplification. Kevin McE (talk) 18:42, 25 June 2025 (UTC)

The guidance on Wikipedia for footballing nationality is, honestly, pretty unclear and inconsistent, and I don't see how it is relevant in this situation.

You’ve mentioned the policy but didn’t link to it, so for the benefit of everyone, here it is:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Football/Nationality#Nationality_to_indicate

That whole discussion is about players, not managers. It’s written with the assumption that a player might eventually declare for a national team under FIFA rules. But Will Still was never a professional footballer, so there’s no past or future international career to speculate about. Applying those standards here just doesn’t make any sense.

As we can never know who he would have played for, then we can default to his birthplace, which I agree would be aprropriate where there is no knowledge about how the person identifies in terms of nationality.

However, we do know how he identifies. He's been crystal clear. “When people ask me whether I feel Belgian or English, I feel totally English.”

Silly example - Bruce Willis was born in Germany. If he became a football manager, would we really stick a German flag next to his name? Of course not. He’s American, and that’s how everyone understands and describes him. Wikipedia’s role is to describe, not prescribe.

If Will Still hadn’t said anything about how he identifies, then I would definitely agree that the Belgian flag would be the most reasonable label based on background, birthplace and career. But he has said clarified this himself, in a completely unambiguous manner.

So in this case, using the English flag fits best with Wikipedia’s own sourcing policies. And others above have said, in their own words, this is both definitive and clear. 62.49.120.128 (talk) 19:58, 28 June 2025 (UTC)

Yet to the IP addresses beginning with 2a0a:ef40:25c:d801, the flag is still being changed with the IP address using this talk page reverting back. I'm in favour of an RFC. Iggy (Swan) (Contribs) 20:11, 2 July 2025 (UTC)

Might be beating a dead horse here, but Still recently went on The Overlap podcast and seemed to imply there that he considers himself to be Belgian rather than English when discussing his tenure at Southampton - https://x.com/WeAreTheOverlap/status/2049783542628970657?s=20 (At 0:29 - "Probably to other people, I am English. I don't- I'm not, though.) BigBlackCthulhu (talk) 13:32, 30 April 2026 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 25 May 2025

(24 Years of age) should be changed to (24 years old). Years of age is a meaningless expression. Would you say "My cat is seven years of age? or "my son is 9 years of age?" No, you'd say "my cat is seven years old", and "my son is nine years old." 2A00:23EE:1380:5E6C:B525:FA81:D1C1:FE16 (talk) 18:49, 25 May 2025 (UTC)

 Not done: "Years of age" is perfectly good English and obviously not meaningless. A bit more formal perhaps, but nothing out of the ordinary. Day Creature (talk) 03:11, 26 May 2025 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 26 May 2025

change Premier League to Championship 2A00:23C6:37B1:E01:B459:389B:7198:3AE3 (talk) 05:19, 26 May 2025 (UTC)

Already done Day Creature (talk) 18:04, 27 May 2025 (UTC)